People & Places

Best Career Move St. Louis 2006 - Micheal Ocello

When Micheal Ocello, president of the national strip-club chain VCG, decided to run for one of two open seats on the Mehlville School District Board of Education this past spring, it sounded like the setup to a raunchy joke: A strip-club owner walks into a school-board meeting and...no, that's not right. A school-board member walks into a strip club...huh. Yeah, the people of Mehlville couldn't find a punch line  or a better candidate  either. Initial voices of dissent gave way to signs of support throughout the traditionally conservative south-county district. One teacher we spoke with said Ocello got her vote because VCG is a successful business, and she figured he could use that acumen to take on issues like the district's budget. Voters must've felt the same  Ocello easily won a seat on the board.